Much attention is being focused these days on the problem of the disposal of plastic wastes. Recycling of plastics is one approach that is being taken, and another approach has been to make plastics degradable by modifying their composition, i.e., by blending additives, such as starch, with the polymers used to form plastic articles.
Some consumer products manufacturers recently have been promoting the use of trash composting as a means of dealing with solid-waste disposal, and the composting of disposable diapers has been reported. However, at the present state of the at, owing to the presence in the diapers of the propylene polymer materials, which require many, many years for biological degradation so as to form a compost humus, only a portion of the diaper material, i.e., that made of cellulosic material, has been compostable at practical rates. The resulting product is an inferior compost of little value.